The Lismore App
The Lismore App
Your local digital newspaper
Games/PuzzlesBecome a SupporterFlood RecoveryPodcasts
The Lismore App

Cummings to expand into Furniture and Bedding on Molesworth Street

The Lismore App

Simon Mumford

26 February 2024, 8:00 PM

Cummings to expand into Furniture and Bedding on Molesworth StreetElton Cummings and new Manager of Cummings Bedding & Furniture Ernie Angelosanto in front of the new Molesworth Street store

Elton Cummings is committed to Lismore and believes in its future. Cummings Electrical has been part of the Lismore CBD for the last 28 years.


Like all Lismore businesses in the floodplain, Elton suffered large financial losses two years ago but has taken it on the chin and rebuilt Cummings Bi-Rite Electrical on Glasgow Lane at the back of Molesworth Street.


Eighteen months later Elton started to think and plan for how he would use his building space at 47 Molesworth Street. Behind the boarded-up frontage, workers began to construct a new Cummings business, Cummings Bedding & Furniture.



"When we took over the Brown & Jolly building when they went out of business, that was the year we took over the Retravision franchise in Lismore," Elton explained the Cummings history in Lismore.


"Before that, we were in random buildings around town. When we first came to this town we couldn't buy a building, there was nothing for sale. All we could do was rent small buildings and we rented several buildings.


"Molesworth Street was our original shop for furniture and electrical," Elton told the Lismore App," That was the first building we could buy."


"It was a bit of an old building, an old hardware shop when we bought it. After the flood, it was pretty well completely devastated. All the walls and fixtures were smashed out, the front window was smashed out, and the back doors were smashed out of it."



"So we decided that rather than rush into it, we had another location to operate out of, we'd wait for the right time and when things settle down with builders not so busy, we would then slowly do it up, which we have."


"We've made it so that it's resilient for the next flood. We have cement floors, drainage in the floors, power points up high, data up high and taken away all the masonite, chipboard and all that sort of stuff. Everything we built is above the '74 flood by about a metre but not as high as the 2022 flood. That's the ceiling."


To help with flood preparation, in the case of the levee wall being overtopped, Elton has created a massive mezzanine level for storage upstairs.


"We've got over 500 square meters of mezzanine in that shop and we've increased the size of our capacity to lift things up. So instead of having a small lift, we've got something that's fairly large and we can take it up fairly quickly."


While the timing of the opening of Cummings Bedding & Furniture is dependent on so many variables, Elton says they will be in the new shop before the first of May.


(Inside the 700 square metre space for the new Cummings Bedding & Furniture store)


"Instead of having electrical and furniture jammed in together, we'll have 700 square metres of bedding, furniture and mattresses. And what we'll do over this shop (Glasgow Lane), which is almost 1000 square metres, we will have three times the size of our kitchen offer which is ovens and hot plates and we will also go into some upmarket bathroom areas, extend our TV area substantially and our small appliances."


"We'll just have a better offer that will be neater, wider and have more room. It'll be the biggest electrical shop and probably the biggest furniture shop in town."



Elton decided to create Cummings Bedding & Furniture because of the lack of competition in Lismore since the floods.


"There's only really two players and then there will be us. At the moment, you have offerings in neighbouring towns which are a lot better and bigger, so this will fill that gap. People won't have to shop out of town."


"We will have some high-end products but we will certainly have a lot of the middle range and with some budget offerings as well. That whole middle area which is probably not well catered for in the market will have a good officer."


"Customers keep saying that they want to shop local and that's pretty encouraging. This is a big investment for us, the renovations is well over half a million dollars, so that shows some confidence in the town."


"I believe that the town is starting to look good. You will not know this town in another 12 months. And the offer for people to get into a shop is half the price it was before the flood. They can rent shops real cheap. So, it's got to be a good offer for people if they're smart enough to be resilient for floods, they are going to make a fortune hopefully."


The Lismore App
The Lismore App
Your local digital newspaper


Get it on the Apple StoreGet it on the Google Play Store